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"Shows how little Mr. von Kerber reely knows about me, ma'am," said Stump gallantly, beaming on her over the rail of the small upper deck. By this time, Mrs. Haxton had satisfied herself that the Aphrodite's crew might be trusted to bring her boxes on board without smashing them, and she gathered her skirts carefully to keep them clear of the quay.
They were, of course, clearly visible from the ridge, where, unknown to them, the leader of a strong relief was then lying in the cleft of a rock split to its base by extremes of heat and cold. Dick counted the cones. There were seven, of them. Though fully a mile and a half distant, he could see Mrs. Haxton sitting between two huge boulders.
You heard all that passed to-day. Since then, my grandfather has refused to discuss the affair. As a result, Mrs. Haxton and the Baron were snappy during dinner. In fact, they were unendurable, and I was delighted when they left us." "It is a hateful thing to have to lecture you," he said, coming nearer, and trying to peer into her face, "but you know you ought not to take this risk.
Many of the camels were wounded, some were dead, and valuable time was wasted, even in this disgraceful sauve qui peut, in a deadly struggle for possession of such animals as could move. Von Kerber, when it was borne in on him that to obtain a camel meant life for Mrs. Haxton and himself, shouted to her to keep close to him, and ran in front of a mounted Arab who had emerged from the melee.
The retort was in the nature of the tac-au-tac riposte beloved of the skilled swordsman. It was succeeded by a tense silence. Mrs. Haxton glared at the Baron. The ghost of a smile flickered on Irene's lips as she glanced at Dick. Von Kerber swished one of his boots viciously with a riding-whip. He found he must say something. "Why are we creating difficulties where none exist?" he snarled.
Haxton, hunting the ship for Irene not to speak of Royson and the girl herself when in calmer mood may have wondered why Stump should trumpet forth his information as though he wished all on board to hear it. Perhaps it was, as Dick already well knew, that the stout skipper had good eyesight as well as a kind heart.
Monsieur Haxton was fool enough to tell Alfieri something about them." "Probably Monsieur Haxton meant to play the part of an honest man." "It may be. Who knows? Yet it is certain that Alfieri would never have shared the treasure with Monsieur Haxton If he had known what the writing was about.
The situation was precisely one of the suddenly-arising and acute crises in warfare which accentuate the difference between races. While von Kerber, and Mrs. Haxton, too, for that matter, saw the urgent need of prolonging the desperate strife for just those few minutes, their Arabs, after fighting coolly and bravely throughout an exhausting day, now quite lost their heads.
Haxton spoke again, the tears had gone, and her voice resumed its pleasantly modulated tone. "May I begin by assuming that you intend to marry Mr. Royson?" she asked. Irene laughed softly, and her glance wandered beyond the busy camp to the distant hills. "I have known more unlikely events to happen," she said. "I thought so. I recognized the symptoms.
Alfieri has defeated us. We have lost caste with you and your grandfather. For Heaven's sake, let us go!" Again there was a pause. For some reason, Irene's sympathies conquered her again. She had risen, and she approached a little nearer. "I wish to say," she murmured, "that I am sorry for you." Mrs. Haxton looked up at her. Her face was frozen with misery.
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